Théo Casciani is an author. [© Pablo Di Prima](portrait.jpg)
Born in 1995, he studied humanities and social sciences at SciencesPo. and mathematics at Panthéon-Sorbonne University, in Paris, before joining the contemporary writing program at La Cambre, in Brussels, where he is now a lecturer. Rétine, his first novel, was published by Éditions P.O.L in 2019. His fictions, translated into different languages and awarded several prizes, have been presented through multiple forms in France and abroad, including WIELS [BE], Reference.Point [UK], Kyoto Art Center [JP], Centre Pompidou [FR], Montez Press [US], Terranova [SP], Théâtre National de Chaillot [FR], KW [DE], Newton [US], Goldsmiths University [UK], Soto [JP], LG Arts Center [KR], Palais de Tokyo [FR], Göteborg Opera [SW], Actoral [FR], Fanfare [NL], Lafayette Anticipations [FR], Trauma [DE], Spazio Maiocchi [IT] and the Louvre [FR]. He has also contributed to publications such as AOC, Kaleidoscope, Alphabet, Avyss, Capsule, Spectre, Klima, Aleï, Habitante, Possession Immédiate, Revue, Sabir, Draft, 90antiope, Magma, Mouvement, European Review of Books and The Brooklyn Rail. These texts have led to various collaborations, residencies in places like Villa Médicis and Hôtel Experimenta, and a research seminar in Belgium, in 2021. Théo Casciani is currently working on two novels to be published in 2025, including Model, a cosmogony accompanied by a series of twelve collective and multimedia readings. He is represented by Agence Aimant. [© Pablo Di Prima](portrait.jpg)
This webpage was designed by Masayuki Makino using the Plantin font and developed by Harry. Its soundscape is a piece by Pierre Rousseau composed of extracts read by Mana Haraguchi. This layer presents an English version of all the texts on the site, translated by Gabriel René Franjou. All images are copyrighted and may not be reproduced. [© Pablo Di Prima](portrait.jpg)
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Maquette is a novel to be published by Éditions P.O.L, taking the form of a cosmogony for the world to come. It examines the ways in which new models appear and the persistence of emotions in the face of virtual mutations. It is being written alongside a series of readings, of which there are as many episodes as there are chapters in the manuscript. Hijacking standard codes and renewing the feuilleton serial system, these collaborative events aim to confront the text to different perspectives and sensibilities while it is still malleable, using a variety of media to establish the fiction’s atmosphere. In addition to the artists invited to each event, the cycle involves Simon de Dreuille [creative direction], Élise Poitevin and Anne Vimeux of SISSI [conception support], Chloé Bonnie More [coordination], Masayuki Makino [graphic design], Martin Desinde of Dépense Défensive [archives], Pierre Demonès [styling], Gabriel René Franjou and Patrick Stasny [translation], Margaux Blachère [production], and is sponsored by, among others, the Mondes Nouveaux program. This project was discussed in an interview with Donatien Grau, published in The Brooklyn Rail. [© Masayuki Makino](maquette1.jpg)
The first chapter, entitled LICHEN, was presented in autumn 2021 in Marseille, at the SISSI club. Running from noon to midnight, on the locations of the novel, shifting between concert, panel discussion and video-chat, the reading becomes a meeting place and brings together a range of practices, contributions and interpretations, with the participation of Jamie Lozoff, Aurilian, Pierre Rousseau, Mia Brion, Marie Lueder, Anne Vimeux, Élise Poitevin, Inès Di Folco, Hayoung Kim, Joana Preiss, Cléo Verstrepen, Lil Miquela and Francine Cuq. [© Théophil Eschenauer et SISSI](lichen.jpg)
VERSION is a film populated by avatars, doppelgangers, holograms and ghosts. It is co-produced by Pivonka and Hotel Experimenta. The characters in this chapter cross paths, get lost and meet again in urban or digital territories as they fight over the memory and imagine the future of a lost identity. This mid-length science-fiction film, directed with Lou Rambert Preiss, brings together Thibault Lac, Uccellove, Ewa Awe, Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull, Caroline Honorien, Vittorio Pessin, Gylfi Þorsteinn, Juliette Barrat, Toco Vervisch, Clara Boulard, Félix E. Pap and Colombe d’Humières. The film was presented in thirty locations at the same time, on 9 September 2022 at 8.30 pm. VERSION was simultaneously shown in New York [Newton], Paris [Centre Pompidou], Amsterdam [Fanfare], Brussels [WIELS], Tokyo [The White], Barcelona [Terranova], Marseille [Mucem] and Tbilisi [Left Bank]. The sound part is accessible on *Duuu Radio and complete list of crew members and screening venues available on a dedicated website. [© Pivonka Production](version.jpg)
The third episode of this series of readings took place in London in December 2022, then has been presented in February 2023. The VISA chapter resulted in a radio play conceived in collaboration with Thelma Cappello, commissioned by Reference.Point, 180 The Strand, and broadcast by Montez Press. Set in the City of London, the story follows the signing of a treaty aiming to establish internet borders and create virtual visas to limit climate damage and contain the spread of conspiracy theories. The reading includes the voices of Brother May, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Maïa Tellit Hawad, Forensic Architecture, Gabriel René Franjou, Jonah Freund, Chloee Maugile, Sophia Dowson-Collins, Robin Burgess, Victoria Abu Khalil, Alma Feldhandler, Kazumichi Komatsu, Ching Chuan Kuo, Rafael Moreno, Mia Brion, Agata Ingarden, Maud Barret and Masha Silchenko. Chloé Delchini designed the tickets for this event made possible thanks to Io Worthington and Edie Ashley. [© Thelma Cappello et Reference.Point](visa.jpg)
HYSTERIA is a simulation realized at the Louvre Museum. The fourth chapter follows an artificial intelligence detected in the Salle des Caryatides and suspected of trying to steal the souls of hysterical sculptures. As it attempts to hack into the burning statues, a group of activists rise up to save the works from this threat. The project is part of the Regards du Louvre series, featuring Ivan Argote, Hicham Berrada, Anton Bialas and Kamilya Kuspanova, Mykki Blanco, Pan Daijing, Eliza Douglas, Mimosa Echard, Miles Greenberg, Rafik Greiss and Christelle Oyiri, among others, and was produced in collaboration with Valentin Gillet [3D photography], Kim Boutin from DVTK [digital supervision], Simon Bénichou [technical advice], Sagar Patel from dokodemo [development], Pierre Rousseau [music], Abel Roux [sound engineer], Aurore Clément [voice-over], Marina Herlop [screams], Vinson Fraley, Michèle Lamy, Hatsune Miku and McKenzie Wark [characters], Marie-Mam Sai Bellier [graphic design], Laurenz Brunner and Étienne Ozeray [typographies]. The video has been broadcasted during French Waves festival on Tencent platform, in China, and is available on the Louvre’s medias. [© Musée du Louvre](hysteria.jpg)
OPERA is a theatre play presented in May 2023 at the Château d’If, off the coast of Marseille, at the invitation of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux as part of ‘Mondes Nouveaux’ and the PAC Festival. At the end of the “corridor des oubliettes”, a cell of the former prison becomes a fiction capsule, a detached piece of the narrative, or simply a miniature of the great simulation described in this fifth chapter. The narrator, portrayed by Marc Susini, a kind of guru-architect of the metaverse, describes the influence that these alternative universes supposedly already have on our lives and the real world, which according to him, would henceforth be no more than an island lost within the virtual. He recites his prophecies under the half-protective, half-threatening gaze of a hysterical but mute boy, a member of the conspiracy fighting against the emergence of this new world, played by Félix Maritaud. Introduced by a music by Nkisi, this duel takes place in a set-up conceived with the help of Rémy Bourakba from MOTTO, lit by Corentin Laplanche-Tsuitsui, built by Théophil Eschenauer and photographed by Elsa Kostic. [© Elsa Kostic](opera.jpg)
DEFINITION, the sixth episode in this series, takes the form of an exhibition conceived at the invitation of Claire Staebler and presented at the Frac des Pays de la Loire, in Nantes, from June 30 to October 20, 2023, under the title, “You don’t have to believe it for it to exist”. By transforming the context of the Frac into another space, part data-center, part laboratory, part storage, the aim is to question the future of artworks in the next world, between dystopia and multiverse, while letting the public take part in the simulation, in this future. The exhibition, designed by Simon de Dreuille, with graphic direction by Marie-Mam-Sai Bellier and animations by Baptiste Poligné, features works by Laëtitia Badaut Haussmann, Salomé Chatriot, Ivan Cheng, Chris Cunningham, Pierre De-monès and Inner Light, Jesse Darling, Kevin Desbouis, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Garance Früh, Timothy Morton, General Motors and Norman Bel Geddes, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Amal Gui-chard and Walter Wathieu, HaYoung, Rem Koolhaas, Mike Kelley, Ibrahim Meïté Sikely, Rafael More-no, Pamela Rosenkranz, Harilay Rabenjamina, Tschabalala Self, Colin Self, Erwan Sene, Tommaso di Stefano Lunetti, Emma Stern, Frances Stark, Hito Steyerl, Pol Taburet, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Gaspar Willmann. The exhibition text and documentation are available online. [© Marie-Mam-Sai Bellier](Nantes.jpg)
TACTIQUE is a conference organized following a proposal by the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles to conclude its “Arpenter » festival, in Lille, in collaboration with Maison Folie Moulins, the programs of Extra! at the Centre Pompidou, in Paris, and Actoral, in Marseille, as well as the AOC media, which will publish the transcript. The event was inspired by its decor: the Piranesian space of the Euralille district, planned by Rem Koolhaas and OMA between 1989 and 1994. It brought together a group of artists, activists and scientists, who were invited to discuss excerpts from the novel, read for the occasion and punctuated by a sound piece by Vegyn. The reflector scenography designed by Quentin Vuong was photographed by Joseph Kadow, then presented as fragments in pochettes made by Marie-Mam Sai Bellier and printed at Imprimerie du Marais on October 17, 2023, at Lafayette Anticipations, Paris. The launch of this edition took place during the Engadin Art Talk, with a reading of this seventh chapter followed by a conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, the recording of which is available online. This day of exchange also included interventions by Hélène Cixous, Simone Fattal, Trajal Harrell, Thomas Hirschhorn, Anna-Alix Koffi, Stéphanie Bru, Alexandre Theriot, Bice Curiger, Philip Ursprung and Daniel Baumann. The project was produced by Cristina Bechtler, Christian Herren, Dayle Bechtler-Lustenberger, Daan Couzijn, Diane Moquet and Isabella d’Aprile, with the support of Cécile Moscovitz, Louise Brunner, Jean-Max Colard and Stéphanie Pécourt. [© Joseph Kadow and Engadin Art Talks](Lille.jpg)
COLLAGEN is a karaoke event organized in Soto, Kyoto, in December 2024, with the support of Black Cat Day Dream and Kukangendai. This eighth chapter describes a navigation through a multiverse resembling the Purgatory, from explosions to tremors, the desperate and impossible quest for a loved one in this virtual, dystopian and fantasized landscape. Through the angle of fiction, it was the first time that such a personal event has been tackled. Conceived as a multi-layered event, the evening included a sound performance by Kazumichi Komatsu, the presentation of R.O.T Stands for Realm of Tears, a video game created by Vincent Moulinet, screenings of the films La Lyre à Jamais Illustra le Taudis by Yohei Yamakado and Phalène by Sarah-Anaïs Desbenoit, and a concert by Doon Kanda. At the heart of this program, the reading time was accompanied by a visual device developed by Masayuki Makino and a translation by Mana Haraguchi to augment the text through dialogues woven with the other performances, its bilingual version and its screen representations. Archives of the event have been published in Avyss Magazine. [© Elsa Kostic](soto.jpg)
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Retina is the initiation story of a gaze. From the preparations of a DGF exhibition in Kansai, Japan, to the search for a presence in Berlin overwhelmed by the gathering of Europe’s youth, the narrator learns to let go of bodies and territories of which he holds only the image in order to gradually experience his own gaze. The visions of the story take shape and create their own language from one chapter to the next, page after page, as in a picture book. The novel was published by Éditions P.O.L in August 2019 and is currently being translated into various languages. [© Éditions P.O.L](retine2.jpg)
For the publication of Rétine, Théo Casciani collaborated with the architect Simon de Dreuille [Botanical Agency] to create a slowed-down space, a reading time. Pages become images, and printed carpets compose a reproducible and modular framework which, with each performance, is invested by an artist invited to deliver their own perspective on the text on display. Taddeo Reinhardt and Cléo Verstrepen guided the conception of this cycle and Théodora Jacobs designed all its graphical elements. Lecture is a co-production of the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, the Kyoto Art Center and the French Institute of Japan, and was supported by Montévidéo and the Centre Pompidou. [© Cléo Verstrepen](l0122.jpg)
Lecture (01) took place at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris, on the occasion of the Centre Pompidou’s Extra! festival, in September 2019. Programmed by Jean-Max Colard and Stéphanie Pécourt, the premiere, organized by Marie-Ève Tossani, was activated by musician Pierre Rousseau. Lecture (01)’s film was directed by Julie Lecoustre and Alice Pallot, with the contribution of Maxime Cavajani. [© Botanical Agency](presse.jpg)
As part of Nuit Blanche, organised by the French Institute of Kansai, Japan, Lecture (02) was presented at the Kyoto Art Center in October 2019 at the invitation of Isabelle Olivier, Maiko Okumura and Mayumi Yamamoto. It included a sound installation by Kazumichi Komatsu, spatialised with the help of Kota Uematsu from Soto, as well as a bilingual reading conceived by Cléo Verstrepen, who performed it with Fumi Takenouchi. The text was translated into Japanese by Mana Haraguchi and Caladiums plants were installed with the help of Miho Sonoyama of the botanical collective Vandaka Plants. Lecture (02)’s film was produced with the help of the technical staff of the Kyoto Art Center. [© Kyoto Art Center](kac.png)
For Lecture (03), Liam Warren designed a choreographic piece for three dancers, Aurélien Charrier, Andrew Graham and Sandra Français, presented at Montévidéo, Marseille, in October 2019, for the Actoral festival, at the invitation of Hubert Colas. The lighting for this performance was created by Nils Doucet, the music produced by Jules Bourret and the recording made by Kheshia Hadda, with the assistance of Antoine Brice. [© Kheshia Hadda](montevideo.png)
Finally, Lecture (04) took place in October 2020 at the Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, in Marseille, hosted by Stéphanie Pécourt, Sara Anedda and Nathalie Abou-Isaac, as part of the Saison Parallèle organised by the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, with the support of Montévidéo. The performance, imagined by Joana Preiss for the occasion, could not be held in public but was made into a film by Corentin Laplanche-Tsutsui with the help of Kiana Hubert-Low, Mélanie Sanchez, Gwenola Menou, Étienne Grandquillot, Maojaona Rasolofo and François Marquant. [Corentin Laplanche-Tsutsui](joana.jpg)
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In addition to projects with choreographer Damien Jalet, for creations at the Théâtre National de la Danse de Chaillot and the Göteborg Opera alongside collaborators such as Jim Hodges, Kohei Nawa, Tim Hecker, Mark Pritchard or Jean-Paul Lespagnard, musician Pierre Rousseau for the CD Dismantling Nagakin Capsule Tower comissioned by Alessio Ascari for the second issue of Capsule Magazine and its launch at Spazio Maiocchi, in Milano, artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster for her exhibition at Galerie Chantal Crousel, in Paris, photographer Tom de Peyret for the book Concrete Mirages published by Éditions Poursuites and conceived with Nicolas Poillot, Katia Porro, Axel Pelletanche and Thomas Geoffray [Artifices], filmmaker Yohei Yamakado as part of a film produced by the Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains, performer Bryana Fritz for a project presented at Villa Gillet, in Lyon, during a festival organized by Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, or designer Marie Lueder for her collection presented during London Fashion Week with artists such as Constantine/Spence, Tom Schneider, Tim Heyduck, MRWIZE, Stefania Batoeva or Jake Heitland, numerous texts and interviews have appeared in various magazines, in France and abroad, notably in Draft, Archives Album, Klima, Habitante, Mouvement, Revue, Possession Immédiate, Sabir, Spectre [Éditions Cosa Mentale], c.e.l.a [with Botanical Agency], Décor, Editions For Friends [with Oriol Vilanova], AOC, for the Borges Project [with Jean-Philippe Toussaint] or Kaleidoscope Magazine. [© GoteborgOperans](kites.jpg)
These projects have also led to readings, discussions and public interventions, for example at the Palais de Tokyo, the cipM, the Lieu Unique [with the Maison de la Poésie de Nantes], the Fondation Ricard [with Thomas Vauthier, Jessica Magnan and the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs de Paris], for Et Cætera, at Art-Cade, la galerie des Bains Douches [with Cléo Verstrepen, on the occasion of Manifesta], at Florence Loewy Gallery [for a book selection at the invitation of Franck Balland], for Actoral and the PAC festival [with Pablo Di Prima, Mia Brion, Arthur Poujois, Botanical Agency, Eva Anna Maréchal, Hamish Wirgman, Colombe d’Humières, Pierre Rousseau, Martin Tual and Lucile Guilmard], at BAZAR.cie [with Louise Mutrel and Atelier du Palais], at the Couvent de la Comerie [for Montévidéo, with Kazumichi Komatsu], at Honmachi Escola [with Jeanne Magnenat and Cléo Verstrepen], at Silencio, in Paris, fort the release oft he movie Christophe, définitivement [with Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Ange Leccia, Giasco Bertoli, etc.], for Festival Effractions of Centre Pompidou and Bpi, on the occasion of the 40th birthday of Éditions P.O.L [with Marie Darrieussecq, Santiago Amigorena, Olivier Cadiot, Célia Houdart and Nathalie Léger], FORUM Kyoto [with Masahiko Takeda, Simon Érin, Yuki Goda and Kyoko Nomura] or Centre Pompidou-Metz for a talk with Chiara Parisi and Hans Ulrich Obrist. [Masayuki Makino and Pablo Di Prima](feteannulee.jpg)
All of these texts were also the subject of discussions and conferences, at the Festival Faites Lire in Le Mans, at the invitation of Le Monde des Livres for a dialogue with Raphaëlle Leyris and Yannick Haenel, at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre, alongside Jean-Max Colard, Gilles Collard, Julien Vallet, Benjamin Normand and Oriol Vilanova, in April 2018; at Montévidéo, in Marseille, during Actoral, for public interviews organised by Hervé Pons and Camille Louis, with Yves-Noël Genod, César Vayssié and Antoine Charbonneau-Demers, in October 2018; at the Intime Festival, at the Théâtre de Namur, at the invitation of Chloé Colpé, in the company of Guillaume Sørensen, Olivier El Khoury and Gilles Collard, for a debate moderated by David Courier, in August 2019; at the Centre Pompidou, during the festival Extra! festival organised by Jean-Max Colard, for a discussion with Jean-Philippe Toussaint moderated by Henri Guette; or at La Générale, in Paris, at the invitation of Anna Ternon and Eva Maréchal, for a dialogue with Sébastien Souchon of Éditions Extensibles; at the Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, in July 2020, for a discussion with Gabriel Gauthier entitled Keep in Touch, a transcript of which appeared in March 2021 in the third issue of the Mosaïque des Lexiques; at 52 de la rue de la République, in Marseille, with Henri Guette, with Mathilde Roman for an exchange starting from the work of Édouard Levé with the students of the Pavillon Bosio, in Monaco, and of the Kurátorské Stúdiá, in Bratislava, or during a master-class with Gilles Collard for the Centre Pompidou-Metz in December 2020, at the invitation of Patrick Steffen, but also during events [at the Histoire de l’Œil, in Marseille, on the occasion of Actoral, with Joël Baqué and Frédéric Boyer, at Passages, in Lyon, at Cahiers de Colette, in Paris, at Peinture Fraîche, in Brussels, or at the Frac Franche-Comté, in Besançon, in partnership with Les Sandales d’Empédocle, as well as a carte blanche at Vidéodrome 2, in Marseille, during which four films were shown; Exposer, with Cléo Verstrepen (2017), Ici le chemin des ânes, by Lou Rambert-Preiss (2018), Les Ailes du Désir, by Wim Wenders (1987) and Riyo, by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (1999)] or workshops from which resulted, among others, research projects such as Monacorp [with students. x.s from the Art Schools of the South gathered at the Pavillon Bosio, in Monaco] and All The Indeterminacies Are One [with Joana Preiss, Vincent Dieutre, Pierre Rousseau, Gilles Collard and the members of the Atelier des écritures contemporaines de La Cambre, for a piece then broadcast by Kiosk Radio]. [© MET](main.jpg)
Finally, a seminar was organised between the Centre de recherche en Philosophie de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles (PHI) and the Master en Textes et création Littéraire de La Cambre (ENSAV) based on texts by (Théo) Casciani. Entitled Speculor, this project is part of Noé Gross’s research and takes the form of a collective investigation and writing workshop. This work includes interventions and contributions from Corentin Laplanche-Tsutsui, Simon de Dreuille, Arthur Poujois, Gylfi Þ. Gunnlaugsson, Masayuki Makino, Daniel Sean Mellet, Elsa Guénot, Katia Porro, Arnaud Idelon, David Puig, Camille Bleker, Élie Petit, Émilien Chesnot, Elsa Vettier, Eva Marechal, Io Worthington, Laëtitia Badaut Haussmann, Nassim Luczaj, Gabriel René Franjou, Rose Vidal, Sephora Shebabo, Patrick Stasny, Joachim Olender, Corentin Lahouste, Anne Reverseau, Hugo Betting, Gilles Collard, Oriol Vilanova, Taos Bertrand, Georgina Hill and Jimmy Poulot, among others. A dedicated website lists all the contributions and discussions of the seminar. [© Theodora Jacobs](speculor.jpg)
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“In his texts, whatever their form, (Théo) Casciani uses description as a fictional weapon to devise counter-models. The speculative and ambient tableaux he composes seem to possess a life of their own, stretching time and bathed in an eerie, hyper-contemporary and often more-than-human aesthetic; they create a disorder and a lack that one must choose to explore. Never settling on a single subject, Casciani decides to exhibit rather than to tell. He explores and associates political, economic, cultural or media trends, networked to capture the doubts and emotions that remain under the virtual. Drives, obsessions and desires, weaknesses, devices or vertigo; everything is ruined, exhausted or mystified to isolate the underlying raw material: grace.” MG. [© Giasco Bertoli](presse3.jpg)
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